Miniaturization has been one of the most important technological trends in the last decades. The sizes of microchips and microelectronic circuits have been reduced from centimetres to micrometers resulting in a decreased size of consumer electronics goods, mobile phones, etc. Microsystem technology is a collection of all technologies that can be used for the manufacturing of devices having sizes smaller than a few mm, such as, for example, micro-sensors, micro-actuators or other micro-systems. Micro-systems engineering is one of the most promising technologies of this century. On the scale of microelectronic circuits, sensor and actuator functions are implemented in sectors like telecommunications, micro process engineering, and life sciences.
Microsystems often use silicon as a basic substance. Using micro-system technology, it is possible to make very sensitive and very precise architectures and/or sensors in silicon. Other substrate materials can be used although silicon has become dominant. The use of silicon, however, is limited to the silicon standard formats, being e.g. 4 inch, 150 mm, 200 mm, 300 mm round wafers with a thickness usually below 1 mm.
This makes these devices very hard to manipulate in a lab and/or robotized environment.